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White House Caught Unaware By Sun Rising In the East

(AP) — The White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro’s illness, prepared Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that would pay millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic change.

???

The handover was a surprise to the White House and Congress, one senator said.

?????

“The president’s comment was that everybody was caught by surprise, and we’ll have to wait and see” what U.S. action is necessary, said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who discussed the developments with President Bush on Tuesday.

?!?!?!?!?

I don’t even want to talk about this legislation. I just want to say this: The Bush administration didn’t know that Fidel Castro was 79 years old, and therefore likely to get seriously ill? They weren’t prepared for this possibility, and were caught by surprise when it happened? They didn’t have a plan — even a cockamamie one — for what to do in the event that Castro got sick or died?

We are so completely fucked. I don’t even want to think about it.

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5 thoughts on “White House Caught Unaware By Sun Rising In the East”

I read that scientists disagree on whether or not Castro is actually old. You must realize that Castro’s age is a “theory” and while alarmists the “reality based” community have been predicting that someday Castro might be too old and sick to rule, the jury is still out….
oh wait, it’s not…
nevermind

What has really irritated me about this ongoing story isn’t the administration, but the media. Just for a minute, compare the coverage of Cuban Americans in the streets in Florida waving Cuban flags, with the coverage of Mexican Americans in the streets of California waving Mexican flags. If that is un-American of the Mexicans, why isn’t it un-American when the Cubans do it? Oh yeah, the Cubans fled COMMUNIST oppression while the Mexicans flee CAPITALIST oppression. Glad we got that clear.
And yes, the country is being run by morons.

I think using words like surprised is silly. Then I think it’s hard for a President to say “Hey, experts don’t agree about what to do. And it doesn’t matter what’s the best thing internationally because the domestic politics is more important anyway. We’re talking about Florida here.”
The truth isn’t always pretty. I expect our leaders to avoid these details if they want to get elected.
My guess? They really didn’t know when this would happen, so in that way they may have been surprized when it. (“I was betting it would happen on Saturday” a White House official said. Not.)
Just because they may not be saying what’s really going on doesn’t mean were as fucked as we think we are.
Then again, we’re talking about Florida here.
We’re fucked.

No, no, Rebecca, you don’t understand. See, the Cubans are allowed to wave the Cuban flag because none of them came here illegally… oh, wait. They did.
Well, they’re allowed to because they believe in freedom, and came here looking for a better life, unlike the Mexicans, who… oh, wait.
I’ve got it! The ones who are waving the Cuban flag are promising to renounce their US citizenship and go back to Cuba to build a free and democratic society. Wait and see!
Anyway, I look forward to Cuba joining the ranks of advanced democracies like the US and Mexico. Soon Cuba, too, can be a bitterly divided society where the Presidential election is decided by a tiny margin, and the supreme electoral authority lets the conservative candidate win despite evidence of electoral fraud.